


but here I am (next to you)

by sweetblushes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Post Infinity War, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Slow Burn, like I hate myself slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 21:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11929719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetblushes/pseuds/sweetblushes
Summary: Maybe this isn’t how she imagined things would turn out but she knew that this was exactly how they were supposed to be.





	but here I am (next to you)

She felt the tickle on her skin as the sun beat down on her, the rays caressing her as she laid her head back against the chair. The sound of the waves from the ocean just a few feet away sounded like a symphony from nature itself. The sand, warm underneath her feet as she dug them deeper into the ground, the cool ocean breeze fluttering around, causing her hair that wasn’t pulled back to fly in different directions.

Malibu was just as beautiful as she had seen in the movies, maybe even more beautiful if she was honest. It seemed almost impossible that a place so beautiful could be sitting just on the edge of Los Angeles, a place where the sky had a slight brown twinge to the blue when she looked up. Although she hardly had anything to say considering the New York sky was almost just as bad, if not worse. Pollution.

This wasn’t her scene; she would probably never find herself in a place like this, if not for Peter. She couldn’t say no when he had asked her if he would go with him to Tony’s place in Malibu for a couple of weeks. Oh, of course she had wanted to say no but the truth is, when could she ever really, truly say no to Peter? There was never a chance she was going to decline the invitation anyway when she found out just where he was going; when he announced he was going to California.

Malibu.  
Tony Stark’s house.

It had been almost 6 years but she noticed that there was still a slight hitch in his voice when he had mentioned his mentor’s name. There was no way she was going to let him go by himself when she heard that and noticed the way his hands fidgeted, trying to disguise fear as his usual clumsiness.

It was only that same day they arrived that Peter suggested they go outside and spend some time at the beach. She groaned in response because even though it was only six o’clock there, it was nine back home and they had just gotten off a 5 hour flight and that wasn’t adding in the hour ride it took to get to Malibu from LAX. All she wanted to do was grab her laptop, find a bed and let a mindless movie lull her into a deep sleep. But 20 minutes after arriving at the house, she found herself in the swimsuit she had brought with an oversized t-shirt over it that she still had that she received from a tournament back in high school and the biggest pair of sunglasses that she bought specifically for the trip because seriously, did Southern California have to live right on the sun? 40 minutes later she found herself sitting on a beach chair that she had made Peter carry by himself (plus his own) sans sunglasses because Peter had stolen her sunglasses and threw them in the ocean because he whined that she wasn’t enjoying the warm sun on her face like she was supposed to. That turned into her pushing him down in the water in retaliation and grinning to herself as she watched him sputter out water in surprise, eyes as big as saucers. That naturally progressed to payback and the next thing she knew, she was in, experiencing the Pacific Ocean on her skin for the first time in her life. Eventually she ran back to where the chairs were set up and after drying up she sat down and watched as Peter continued to splash around in the ocean.

It was…peaceful, although she would never admit that to Peter. She felt a world away from the busy streets of New York and reality. As she felt the sun kiss her face, she thought maybe she had made the right choice in deciding to come along on the trip.

She had her eyes closed but she heard rustling beside her and heavy breathing that only came from laughter as she sensed Peter sit down in the chair that was beside her. After a few moments his breathing evened out, so she assumed that he had tired himself out in the water and had quickly fallen asleep but the next thing she knew she felt a hand carefully and somewhat cautiously cover hers and turn it over palm up, intertwining their fingers, pulling their hands down to the blanket that they were sitting on, resting their hands right there, between the two of them. Her breath caught for a moment as she felt the warmth radiating from Peter’s hand and his fingers intertwined with hers and as much as she wanted to, she didn’t pull away.

After a few moments of silence with nothing but the ocean making noises around them, she turned her head slightly to her right and peeked one eye open and saw Peter sitting there, his hand in hers, with a smile on his face as the sun glistened off his still wet hair. She didn’t say a word, just smiled to herself and closed her eyes again.

Maybe this isn’t how she imagined things would turn out but she knew that this was exactly how they were supposed to be.

~

It was the first day of junior year that Michelle saw Peter Parker looking well…haggard. Granted, she hadn’t seen him for 3 months during the summer and people change a lot during their teenage years, she did know how biology worked after all, but this was different. Peter looked different in a way she couldn’t explain, she remembered how he was after his Uncle Ben died and she noted that there was a similarity there; no matter how hard he tried to mask it.

“Dude, okay so I was thinking about it and sure Black Widow is off the market now, well maybe she was never on the market but there’s definitely Scarlet Witch now so do you think you could hook that-“

Michelle slammed down her lunch tray in front of Peter and Ned, making them jump, promptly ending Ned’s nonsense conversation. As she sat down, she quickly picked up her fork and lazily started picking at her peaches, which were the only part of her lunch that looked like they were actually worth eating. She really should start a campaign to get the school to start serving better vegetarian options because what was on her tray was dismal. Maybe if she got the other vegetarians in the school to join her-

“What?” she asked without looking up at the two boys in front of her that were staring at her with wide eyes and curious looks.

Ned shot a quick look at Peter before he turned back to Michelle. Peter cleared his throat and said, “Not to be rude or anything but-“

“Why are you sitting with us?” cut in Ned. “Don’t you usually sit over there?” he pointed to the end of the table to where she usually did sit, where she had sat for the first two years of high school.

Michelle looked up at them and lazily shrugged. “Just wanted to remind you two losers not to miss practice today after school. I mean I don’t care if you miss but I don’t want any whining when I trade out one of you for Flash’s first alternate.” She cast a look at Peter. “That includes you too Parker, I don’t care how crappy your summer was, if you don’t want to show up to practice then you can kiss your spot goodbye.”

Peter just looked at her with a strange look on his face for a moment, that for once in Michelle’s life she couldn’t decipher. Usually his face was an open book. Eventually, Peter went back to opening his milk carton as Ned went into an enthusiastic monologue about the events that went down with the Avengers over the summer.

Michelle continued to pick at her peaches as she snuck a look at Peter and could see blankness across his face as Ned rambled on, and he just mindlessly nodded to what his friend was saying. Normally, Peter would be joining in on the conversation especially if it had something to do with the Avengers but he contributed nothing, just looked down at lunch tray and picked at his food as well. Maybe he’s still-

Michelle shook her head, _never mind_ , he was probably just tired because the loser was too busy staying up late playing some nerd game thing with Ned.

~

“Hi! I was wondering if I would be able to join the academic decathlon team? I asked around and people said this was were you all meet and so here I am!”

Michelle looked up from the notebook she was writing game strategies in, to see a shock of blonde hair that was 100% natural and a wide peppy grin, with bright wide inquiring eyes.

“And you are?” asked Flash, looking the girl over who was currently standing in front of the entire team, where they were all seated in the library getting ready to start their first practice for the year.

The girl’s smile just got wider as she flipped her hair off her shoulder and looked at Flash with her bright eyes. “I’m Gwen Stacy. I just transferred here to Midtown and since I was on my last school’s decathlon team I was wondering if I could join this one.” She pulled out a piece of paper from one of the books she was holding and held it up. “I wrote down my qualifications and strengths and weaknesses, if it’s needed to review. I know it’s probably not possible to just come in and join the team but I definitely wanted to let you all know that I was interested in joining.”

Michelle eyed the paper that the girl was holding and it looked like an honest to God resume. It seemed that she was serious about wanting to be apart of the team. Since Michelle was the captain, she figured it would fall to her to make the decision to let the girl on the team and honestly she didn’t want to look over her resume and she seemed a bit too peppy to be real and the way the boys were looking at her-

“Of course you can join! Any new mind would be great and would only benefit us. Isn’t that right Michelle?” Mr. Harrington looked down the table to where Michelle was sitting.

“Uhh,” Michelle kind of looked around, eyes skirting from her teammates back to the new girl who was looking at her expectantly. She noticed that Peter had gone red in the face and had shrunk down in his seat, as he looked at Gwen with his eyes almost bugging out of his face.

Gwen gave her a friendly smile, which looked genuine and well, Michelle couldn’t very well turn down new recruits could she, even if this was a somewhat overly perky blonde, acceptance for all and whatnot.

“Sure.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders. “If you’re any good then we can make you first alternate and make Flash second.” To which Flash just gasped.

~

“Michelle, will you quit staring at me, you’re really starting to freak me out.” Peter fidgeted in his seat before he held his hand up to shield his face from her view.

“Parker, if I was staring, you’d know it.” She deadpanned before continuing to narrow her eyes at him.

It was a month into the school year and Michelle already had the curriculum figured out for the semester. So most of the time in class, she just spent sketching in her notebooks or reading something that would enable her to further educate the somewhat naive, close-minded faculty.

A few moments passed before she felt a gaze on her so without looking up from her book she said, “Who’s staring now Parker?”

Peter jumped in his seat slightly and she could tell that he was turning red in the face as he mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a child whining about being caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Something about that made Michelle feel warmth spread across her body, she maybe even smiled to herself. Not that she would admit it.

“So.” Michelle eyed the books that were slammed down on the desk in front of her and watched as the girl who they belonged to quickly sat down and turned around to face her. “I was thinking about it last night and why not go ahead with the sit in, next week? I mean, Mr. Wilson obviously has no idea what he’s talking about in our women’s studies class; seriously, Midtown is not a bad school so why is a male teaching that class anyway? It’s essentially an oxymoron.”

Looking up at Gwen, Michelle smirked a little. “Exactly. So it’s on for next Wednesday. We just have to get more participants.”

Gwen started counting off on her fingers, “Well, we have Betty and Cindy, I’m pretty sure I can convince that freshman Jessica and some of the other kids that I’m tutoring, Zainab is more than willing and a couple of her friends as well. Flash is onboard; I just need to turn on some Stacy charm to fully convince him.” Sighing, she tucked back a piece of hair that had fallen out from beneath her headband. “The thing is, we need more male presence otherwise, unfortunately, we won’t be taken as seriously.”

Stopping, Gwen cocked her head and turned to Peter, who was just staring at the two girls as they schemed. “Wait a minute, what about you Peter? How about you and Ned? Next Wednesday? Sit in, in the poli-sci 204 room? From 1 until they kick us out?” she looked at him with those sparkling eyes and Michelle noted how he subtly bit his lip and gave a somewhat pained look.

“W-what? Me?” stuttered Peter.”Um, w-well I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it, I have dinner plans with Aunt May that day that we kind of already set up-“

“Peter is going to be too busy saving the world. It’s what he does every night.” Cut in Michelle as she turned to the next page in her notebook and started already working out the flyers to hand out to get the word out.

Peter sputtered in surprise. “Wha- that doesn’t even make any sen-“

“Chill dude, I was just joking, I know how much you and Ned love to build those Star Wars Legos and pretend that you’re saving the galaxy.”

Gwen giggled at Michelle’s comment as Peter visibly relaxed and let out short laugh. “Yeah, of course, I knew that.” He just nodded his head earnestly like a bobble head before stopping and casting Michelle a scandalized look. “And hey, we do not pretend that we’re saving the galaxy, we build them, we don’t actually _play_ with them.”

“Whatever Peter, I know you fancy yourself a Luke Skywalker type.”

~

It seemed the news was ecstatic about the return of Spider-Man, back on the scene after a 4-month absence, since the whole saving the galaxy with the Avengers from a weird alien thing or whatever. Really ecstatic, if the overplayed footage of Spider-Man swinging away from the hold up at an H&R Block (did they even have anything to steal?) was anything to tell off it. It was the 10’oclock news and it had been breaking news since it happened around 4 that afternoon.

“Hey MJ?”

It was still a little stunning to Michelle that Gwen Stacy of all people would want to be her friend. From the moment she stepped into Midtown Science, she was like a light that people gravitated towards. There was not one person in the school that didn’t like her, all the teachers loved her, all the boys fell over her and all the girls wanted to be her. She was Liz Allan all over again but somehow 10 times more. Why she immediately gravitated towards Michelle instead of any of the other girls was confusing. Polar opposites to the extreme.

“ _It’s because you care_.” Gwen had told her when Michelle asked her the first time the blonde girl sat down beside her in homeroom on the second day of school. It was a compliment for sure but Michelle would beg to differ that some of her peers thought differently.

Michelle, who was sitting on her bed, grunted in response while she kept her head down in her notebook. Gwen, who was sitting at the bottom of the bed on the floor homework sprawled out around her, facing the small television where the news was still playing the Spider-Man footage, turned around and looked at Michelle.

“Why do you think Peter keeps skipping out on random classes and practices after school? I mean, sure he’s there all the time but he also just runs out sometimes, with really bad excuses.” Gwen wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Like that one time he said that he forgot that he had to drive his aunt to the hairdresser? _He doesn’t even drive_.”

Looking up for a second at the television screen, red and blue blurring in her vision, Michelle just snorted out a laugh. “Hell if I know.” _Although_ if she really thought about it maybe she di-

“I’m pretty sure he’s Spider-Man.” Announced Gwen confidently.

Michelle immediately whipped up her head to look at her friend that she knew would cause her neck to hurt later that night, she couldn’t help but cock an eyebrow at Gwen in curiosity.

Sensing that Michelle wanted to know more about how she came to this conclusion, Gwen quickly stood up and made her way onto the bed and laid herself across, hands propped up under her chin. “I mean let’s look at the facts, he’s always running out of meetings and school with horrible excuses and there was that one time that he almost missed the first decathlon meet of the year and showed up with a bruise on his face because he _fell over a cat_ on the stairs in his building. Not to mention that he’s literally always gone at the same time Spider-Man is off saving Queens from bad dudes. My dad always comes home and tells stories of how they get a call, only to show up and have the perp webbed up. Plus, there’s those stories you told me about last year with homecoming and the DC thing.”

Michelle didn’t know why Gwen wanted to be her friend but she knew why she wanted to be Gwen’s friend. It was because Gwen was observant just like her. She was one of the smartest people she’d ever met. She finally felt like she met an equal for the first time in her life.

With a small smirk on her face, Michelle just rolled her eyes at her friend. “That dweeb can’t lie to save his life. There’s no way he could be an Avenger.” She knew she was lying through her teeth but she couldn’t admit it to herself either.

~

“Hi, my name is Jessica and I’m from the school paper and I was wondering if I could get pictures for the article we’re writing over the academic team? Gwen said it would be fine if I did.”

There was a freshman girl with dark hair, holding a camera that was standing in front of what was a rather small decathlon practice practice for the day. A few of the members of the team were missing that day for various other school related reasons so Michelle tried to send back nice ‘I’m going to kick you off the team for missing practice’ texts.

“That is a wonderful idea! I say take all the pictures you need.” Answered Mr. Harrington.

“I didn’t even know we had a school paper.” Mumbled Flash.

“Oh, I don’t like having my pictures displayed out to the public.” Michelle said as she buried herself back into her book.

Ned sent her a confused look. “But you have all those pictures of yourself at protests and rallies around the city. On all your different forms of public social medias.”

“Yeah, but those are to help get the word out.” She told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world, to which Ned just shook his head at.

Gwen who was seated beside her, smiled fondly at her friend “Come on MJ, it won’t be that bad. Besides, you’re the captain of the team; we need your face to be featured. It’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, MJ. _It’ll be fun_.” Repeated Peter who was messing around on his laptop a couple of seats away from her.

It seemed like everyone was up for it except for her. She had no choice. She had to relent to the public’s voices. So she left out a loud sigh as she stood up and reached over to shut Peter’s laptop, with him narrowly missing his hand from getting smashed in the process. “Fine. But make sure that you don’t take any close-ups of Peter because he parted his hair differently today and it looks ridiculous.”

Peter let out a cry as he immediately raised his hands up to his hair and glared at Michelle as if she had just let out a major secret of his over the school’s PA system.

~

There was no way she was going to get pulled into this. She would not let herself get pulled into helping plan the winter dance. She hated dances. Sure, she went to every single one that there was during the school year but she hated them. And there was definitely no way she was going to get coaxed into helping _plan_ it. No matter how hard Gwen tried to convince her.

Which of course is how Michelle found herself sitting in the library, on one of the school’s computers, figuring out how to make acceptable posters to hang around the school, ones that Gwen wouldn’t kill her over.

“I don’t think melted snowmen go with the theme, Michelle.” Peter commented from his seat next to her as he took in the graphics on the screen. “It’s a ‘winter wonderland’.”

“Global warming, Parker.” She replied dryly. “Of course it goes with the theme. It’s 55 degrees outside today. It’s December.”

Granted yesterday it was in the 30’s but still. Global warming.

“Somehow I still don’t think Gwen is going to be cool with dead snowmen on the posters.” Peter stretched his arms upward and yawned. “Besides, we’ve been at this for like 2 hours, can’t you just slap some snowy things on there and call it a day.”

If a sliver of skin showed when Peter stretched then Michelle definitely didn’t notice. Nor did she care to sneak a glance. “We’ve been here 20 minutes and the only help you’ve been is whining about who you’re going to go to the dance with. Which by the way, Flash has already asked Gwen so you’re screwed on that front.”

Peter let out a rather undignified squeak before he dropped his arms and started waving them around in a stop motion. He looked like a windmill. “N-no I wasn’t gonna ask Gwen! I just-I mean- that’s cool that she’s going with Flash! I’m-I am totally cool with that because I wasn’t going to ask her anyway.”

Eyeing him up and down as he looked like he was about to fall out of his chair from sheer embarrassment, Michelle turned back to the computer screen. “Of course, you weren’t.”

“I wasn’t! I swear!” Eyes wide with earnest, Peter just continued to stumble over his words. “Ned was the one that was thinking about asking her anyway, he said something about not wanting to go stag with me again this year, which personally I find insulting-“

“You know, you could always ask that freshman girl, Jessica or whatever. Everyone knows she’s got a huge crush on you.”

“MJ!” whined Peter. “I am not going with a freshman. I mean sure, Jessica is cool and everything but she’s a freshman.”

Letting out a loud sigh that caused the curls that were in her face to go flying, Michelle side-eyed Peter as she deigned to put perky happy snowmen graphics on the poster and rolled her eyes at him. “You were a freshman once too. Besides, you went with Liz last year to homecoming and you were only a sophomore.”

“Yeah but that’s totally different!” Suddenly Peter put his hands on the side of Michelle’s chair and swung her around to face him. “MJ, if you love me, you have to help me. I need to find a date.”

Keeping a straight face, Michelle just looked at him for a few seconds, examining his face, dark circles under them like he hadn’t gotten good sleep in a few weeks. He gave her puppy dog eyes and damn it if she couldn’t resist them.

“I don’t love you and I don’t want to help you find a date but if you’ll shut up then, fine.”

A look of relief washed over Peter as a grin lit up his face and before she could stop herself or change her mind, Michelle quickly swiveled her chair back to the computer screen. “My favorite color is green and you better pick me up at 8 o’clock on the dot.”

~

“So how’s it going so far?” Gwen had escaped Flash’s grip and joined Michelle on the side of the gym where she was standing, as Peter had gone to get them something to drink and she assumed to go talk to Ned.

Michelle cast her a look that pretty much said ‘don’t ask’.

“Oh it can’t be that bad. Look, I see he even got your favorite color for your corsage!” Gwen lifted up Michelle’s hand and smiled at the flower arrangement on her friend’s hand. “I bet his aunt picked it out but still so gorgeous.”

Michelle knew her friend was being a little kind, the corsage itself was crushed. Apparently Peter had crushed it on his journey over to her house, where he showed up sweating and out of breath. Which she knew was not a result of nerves, he looked like he had run a marathon across the city.

Frowning, Gwen scooted closer to Michelle and spoke in a quieter tone. “Although I can’t help but notice that you two are dancing like you’re at a 5th grade dance.”

It was true, whenever a slow song came on, which was a lot actually, where did this DJ come from? Peter and Michelle would dance with at least a foot between them. It looked awkward. He handled her like he was afraid to touch her waist and she certainly had the loosest grip she could possibly have around his neck.

Michelle scowled at her friend. “It’s not my fault! He won’t come any closer to me.”

“It take’s two to tango, MJ. Literally.” The two girls noticed that Peter was headed back in their direction with the drinks. So the blonde quickly put a smile on her face and spoke through her teeth. “Now, quit acting like you don’t like him and have a little fun.” As Peter walked up, Gwen grinned like the Cheshire cat and said, “Hi Peter!” as she skipped away.

Watching as her friend quickly ran away before she could say anything, Michelle just gave her a murderous look.

Peter looked back between the retreating Gwen and Michelle, who was standing in front of him, with a confused look on his face. “What was that all about?” He handed her a drink before lifting his own cup up to his lips.

“Oh nothing, she just told me to quit acting like I don’t have a giant crush on you and have a little fun.” Responded Michelle with absolutely no emotion on her face.

The next thing she knew, there was a spray of punch falling on the floor coming from Peter’s direction before he turned on her, practically squawking. “Wha-?” he searched her face for any chance that she could be joking. Michelle on the other hand just kept her face neutral and looked forward, very pointedly not looking at the boy.

Rolling her eyes, she quickly took a drink from her cup, downing it all in one go before setting it down on the table beside her. “Trust me, if I really had a giant crush on you, you’d know, so close your mouth. You look like you just saw your aunt in the nude. Now come on, I like this song.”

She quickly grabbed his hand and walked out onto the dance floor while Peter’s face turned from shock to disgust as he whined, “Aw, gross MJ. Really? I do not need that mental image.”

~

The second time Michelle had a face-to-face encounter with Spider-Man is literally face-to-face in the middle of January. Like he literally dropped out of the sky as she was walking from her house to her favorite second hand bookshop.

She stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw him dangling upside down from a . . . store sign? And had just enough fright in her that she instinctively started to grab the pepper spray that was in her bag and was on the verge of throwing a punch when she recognized the familiar red and blue colors.

“You do realize it’s not safe to just drop in on people like that.” She said without missing a beat.

The eyes of Spider-Man’s mask widened and he pointed behind her. “I just wanted to let you know that there is a creeper guy following you. I’m pretty sure he has his eyes on your bag.”

Michelle threw a quick look behind her and saw the guy that had been following her for the past two blocks, trying to act nonchalant as he looked down at his phone as he propped up against the building. “Yes, thank you I did notice that and I was just about to turn into a store and pepper spray the hell out of him but thanks to you I’ll now be able to save at least fifty cents of my can.”

She sidestepped where Spider-Man was still dangling in front of her and continued on with her walk. She heard the quick commotion of the guy yelling as he was webbed to the wall that he had been trying to act casual against and Spider-Man, honest to God, started lecturing about how the guy should make better life choices then to prey on girls who could probably kick his ass and besides stealing bags is not a very nice thing to do. Michelle just shook her head to herself and kept walking on even when she heard a familiar voice yell out, “Hey! That deserves at least a thank you!”

She gave a one-finger salute in response.

~

“Okay, let’s hurry up and get this over with.”

“I’m loving your positivity today, Michelle.”

Michelle narrowed her eyes at Ned as she sat quickly took a drink from her water bottle. It was the day of the regionals for decathlon, which, they were up next, and she just knew something was going to screw their chance to win up.

It was probably going to be Peter that screwed them up. Sure, he had actually showed up, looking dead on his feet no less, but yes, he’d showed up.

Regionals were being held at Ithaca College upstate and Michelle was seriously under a lot of stress. If they didn’t make it past regionals then that was the end of their run for the year. She hadn’t come this far, shaping and preparing her team, for one of the main members to not bring his A-game on a very important day. She’d almost killed him when she caught him faking a headache at dinner the night before, saying he was ‘going back to his room to lay down’. Everyone else believed his lie but all it took was for Michelle to notice the twitch in his hand to know that he was running off somewhere. She was not going to have a DC all over again. Besides, where could he have possibly been going in upstate New York? As he left the hotel restaurant, where the team was having dinner, she tried to instill the fear of God in him via a glare, if he wasn’t ready the next morning. Her gaze had done damage to lesser people so she just huffed in anger when he still left the table anyway.

“We’re going to fail.” It was five minutes until their turn came up and Michelle could feel her nerves getting the best of her. This was going to be her legacy; she was going to be remembered as a failure captain that didn’t get the Midtown Science academic decathlon team through regionals for the first time in like 10 years. This was going to look awful on her college application, goodbye any chance of getting in at Empire State or better yet Yale.

“Chill MJ,” said Gwen as she plopped into the hard foldable chair next to Michelle. “It’s going to be great, I know it, and you know it. Seriously, when was the last time we did badly at a meet?”

“That one time that both PETER AND NED bailed out on us when we were up in Harlem.” Michelle raised her voice on the latter part of her sentence and sent the two boys a dirty look, where they were standing just a few feet away, talking amongst each other, probably plotting a way to ruin the meet for her.

Both boys turned to look at her and Ned yelled back, “Hey, we still won didn’t we?” As Peter said at the same time, “Let it go MJ.”

“No thanks to our alternates who I should probably just replace you guys with!” Michelle started to get up from her chair but Gwen pulled her back down.

“Oookay, now that you’ve let off some steam.” Her friend handed her a yellow Starburst, which was Michelle’s favorite, something that she usually stored in her bag with her at all times, which is where Gwen probably swiped it from. “How about you just breathe and get your head in the zone.” Michelle slumped in her seat and took a deep breath and then let it out. “Maybe with a little less sarcasm?” continued Gwen as she eyed her.

Not even a moment later, they heard their cue to make their way into the meet room. As she took her spot in front of the group to lead them, Michelle swallowed the last bit of her Starburst and took an actual deep breath and let it out. Realistically, she knew it was going to be okay, after all Gwen and her were on the team but still there was just a little voice nagging in the back of her head. So at the last second right before she set foot in the doorway, she quickly turned behind her and locked eyes with Peter who was standing behind Gwen, and hissed. “And I swear Parker if we get points docked off of appearance because of your stupid Thor t-shirt, then I’m so killing you.”

Peter looked humiliated as he whispered back, “I told you! Someone took all my clothes out of my backpack and left me with this!”

Michelle inwardly rolled her eyes as she plastered a fake smile on her face as she walked into the room, hearing Ned snicker and say, “At least it matches our jackets.”

~

Michelle was still unsure how she ended up at the Parker residence almost every Wednesday but she could only assume that she had Gwen to thank for that. It was sometime back in February that Gwen cut into Ned and Peter’s conversation at lunch about how they always talked about new Lego sets in front of the two girls but never invited them over to come help actually build any.

Both boys looked absolutely dumbfounded at her when she said that, like the thought had never occurred to them or even more than that, someone like Gwen would want to help build Legos with them. Which Michelle knew was ridiculous because her friend already sat with them at lunch and obviously thought the two losers were cool enough to do that with so why not hang out with them outside of school?

“You’d really want to come make some Lego architecture with us?” asked Peter quietly, like if he said it out loud then it wouldn’t be real.

Michelle couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter at ‘ _Lego architecture_ ’. Since when did playing with Legos become architecture?

Gwen on the other hand just beamed at Peter, which he visibly shrunk under, something he usually always did when Gwen gave him any attention. “Of course. And so would MJ!”

Giving her friend a double take, Michelle opened her mouth and grumbled, “MJ would?”

“Socializing MJ. It’s a thing.”

“I socialize!” Michelle gestured to the boys in front of her. “Right you guys? This is me socializing, we talk, and we do things together. These are my boys. Right. Here.” She reached over and grabbed one of both Ned’s and Peter’s hands; both of whom looked at her like they’d never seen her before in their entire lives.

Gwen just rolled her eyes. “I mean outside of school and decathlon stuff.”

Michelle just glared back.

Which is how Michelle almost always ended up at the Parker residence on Wednesdays with Gwen who, she noticed was becoming a little too giggly around Peter. Huh. When did that happen?

“So Michelle, Gwen. How was school today? Did you keep these two guys in line?” asked Peter’s Aunt May who gave them hugs as soon as they walked in the door. Apparently she was really excited over the fact that Peter was bringing over more friends, which was evident from her shock the first time the two girls showed up at her front door. May had to make sure they were there for _her_ Peter Parker.

“Of course.” Gwen answered with a sly smile.

“Well, as much as you can when one of them goes running off in the middle of 5th period for no reason.” Michelle told May.

“Hey!” yelled Peter. “I-I just got sick all the sudden. I’m pretty sure it was that tater tot casserole. It smelled like feet and don’t you guys try to deny it.”

“The tater tot casserole was just fine Peter.” retorted Gwen who walked over to Peter and slapped him upside the head. As he let out a rather undignified yelp, Gwen just giggled and spun around on her heels as she headed to his room. “But sure, if that’s your story then by all means, stick to it.”

Peter looked to Michelle for help but she just stuck out her tongue at him and shoved past him to join Gwen and Ned in the bedroom.

“I’m not inviting you two over anymore if all you’re going to do is abuse me in my own home!”

~

“Peter’s gonna ask you to prom you know.”

The two girls sat on the floor in their art class, where they were working on a mural together. Both of them looked out the window to see the boy in question, walking around in circles in the hallway, mumbling to himself then shaking his head, jump up and down and then run his hands through his hair nervously. He’d been doing that in that same order for the last 5 minutes.

“That, or the Jones girl. I can’t be sure. I mean the way he runs when he sees her is quite the indicator that he definitely likes her.”

Swiping the grey acrylic from the person behind her, Gwen’s face was red from blushing furiously. “No he isn’t!”

“You owe me 20 bucks when he does. Only 10 if he does it and is capable of forming actual sentences, which I doubt.” Michelle smiled slightly with her hair covering her face as she watched Gwen practically die from embarrassment on the floor in front of her. “And I know you want him to ask anyway.”

“Michelle Jones, I hate you.”

Michelle let out a pure full-bodied laugh. “Yeah maybe, but you still want Peter Parker to ask you to prom.”

Later that day when Michelle ended up with 20 dollars in her pocket as she walked home, she counted it as a small victory and if she felt a small twinge of something that rhymed with relish, she adamantly ignored it.

~

The third time Michelle had a face-to-face encounter with Spider-Man was on the night of prom.

She knew that it was stupid to go through with prom when there had literally been a scorpion monster thing ravaging the city for the past few weeks but hey, the rest of the prom committee wouldn’t be deterred. Let no one say that the students of Midtown Science weren’t fearless.

Every person, students and teachers both, with enough brains ran as soon as there was a crash of glass and the first scream rung out. Most of the people at the hotel, where the prom was being held at, had fled outside as the scorpion thing ravaged the place but even as Spider-Man had shown up on the scene, Michelle still found herself inside the hotel lobby because she couldn’t find Gwen.

Gwen had found her and Ned as soon as the commotion started and told them to get out and she would meet them as soon as she could but she had to make sure everyone else got out as well, which was _stupid_ but so very Gwen. A few moments later Michelle saw a flash of red and blue and the next thing she knew Spider-Man was doing his best to take on the villain.

After running outside and being held back away from the entrance of the hotel from the police that were on the scene, Michelle noticed that Gwen wasn’t anywhere. She looked around the panic stricken students and didn’t see her friend, nor did she see Peter. She tried to keep the hysterics down in her voice as she asked Ned if he’d seen Gwen either but when he said no, she felt her heart drop to her stomach. Her friend was still inside the hotel, where it sounded like quite the fight was going on.

Immediately she ran towards the front doors of the hotel but was stopped by a policeman who insisted she stay back.

“But my friend is still in there!” she yelled at the policeman. But he shook his head and said that her friend would be okay and they were going to find her as soon as possible.

 _Bullshit_. Michelle’s mind raced as she saw a fire suddenly break it’s way out one of the windows. There was no choice; she had to run past the police. Breaking away from the policeman’s grip, she ran as fast as she could in her _stupid prom dress_ that was too tight and could hear the policeman frantically yelling at her as she got closer to the hotel.

As soon as she ran into the hotel lobby she stopped dead as she noticed that it was eerily creepy and silent, destruction everywhere. Her heart pounding in her ears as she tried to figure out which way to go, she knew that she couldn’t go in the direction where the fire was, but she also couldn’t risk going in the wrong direction and running into the scorp-

“MICH-Hey!”

Michelle immediately turned around and saw the familiar red and blue suit swinging it’s way towards her, obviously out of breath and by the looks of it, a little bit injured.

“What are you doing here? You need to get out of here, like now! Go!”

Frantically shaking her head, Michelle yelled. “No, my friend! My friend is still in here somewhere!”

Suddenly a scream rang out coming from the floor above. Both she and Spider-Man quickly turned their attention to the scream. “Gwen! That’s Gwen! You have to get her!” she said hysterically as she started to the stairs to where she heard Gwen scream.

She felt a hand abruptly stop her though and push her back towards the front door. “No, go! I’ve got it. Just go! Please! Get out of here! Now!” Michelle hesitated a moment before she was pushed back with more force. “Go! I’ve got her! GO!”

She watched Spider-Man swing away fast as light and she ran back outside as she looked over her shoulder, praying that he wasn’t too late.

~

It had been two weeks since school ended for the summer and Michelle found herself back at the Parker residence, lazily laying on the bottom of Peter’s bunk bed, playing on his stupid Nintendo DS. It’d been 3 weeks since the incident at prom and Gwen’s parents wouldn’t let her out of the house until they were utterly sure that she was safe and well, which of course she was because she showed up back at school the Monday after prom, perky as ever but eyes alight with stories of Spider-Man. So she was not allowed anywhere except to go over to Michelle’s for at least another week.

Ned, on the other hand wasn’t coming until later that evening so it was just Michelle and Peter in his room at the moment. Peter, who had been looking a little worse for wear after the excitement at prom had shown up that next Monday looking like he’d gone through a blender. But of course all he had to say was that he got pushed down in all the commotion at prom while everyone was trying to get out.

Michelle didn’t believe him.

“Hey, do you want some pizza rolls? I’m like starving so I was just gonna pop some into the toaster oven.” Peter poked his head into his bedroom and curiously looked at Michelle, who looked up at him over the edge of his DS.

“As long as they’re cheese.”

Peter rolled his eyes in response and said as he walked back into the kitchen. “Duh MJ, I’m not stupid.”

“Sometimes I beg to differ Parker!”

20 minutes later, tummies full of pizza rolls, both Michelle and Peter were still just lounging in his room. Michelle was still sprawled out on his bed still playing his DS and Peter was sitting on the floor beside the bed but his head lay back near where Michelle’s feet were.

Michelle had overcome 5 levels since she arrived at the Parker residence and was just about to beat the boss for level 6 when she heard Peter start to squirm around, where he was sitting. She knew something was up, the boy was too fidgety. Well, he was always fidgety but more so when he was hiding something. Which, now that she thought about it, was kind of all the time.

“Spit it out Peter.”

She wasn’t looking but Michelle knew without a doubt that Peter’s mouth had dropped open and he was now trying to pick it up off the floor. “I-wha-no! I don’t have anything to say, nothing at all- well okay maybe just a little tiny something that I wanted to talk about but really like it’s not that big of a deal, like I just wanted to maybe ask your opinion on it because like I know you and-“

Rolling her eyes, Michelle just listened to Peter continuously ramble on in a voice that sounded suspiciously like a chipmunk. “I’m serious dude, just-“

“DO YOU THINK GWEN WOULD GO OUT WITH ME?”

For a moment Michelle’s motor skills seemed to have stopped and she watched as her fingers stopped mid-air above the buttons and saw the boss take a final swing and defeat her.

“Um, Michelle?” Peter looked around at her, wide eyes as he searched her face for an answer. “Did you hear me? Like okay, so I know that Gwen’s like the most gorgeous girl in school and way cooler than me but hey let’s not forget that she did go to prom with me so I kind of already have chance?” As he continued to make his case to Michelle, his face started to fall. “So wait, does that mean I have no chance because you’re kinda saying nothing and that’s starting to freak me out, after all you are her best friend and you know her better than me so you would know if she would say yes and I don’t want to look like a complete idiot if she says no.”

Michelle just continued to look at Peter who was now standing up, wringing his hands and nervously rubbing his neck. He kept waiting for her to say something, anything, back to him. As the seconds continued to tick by, he began to look more and more crestfallen as though Michelle’s silence meant that he had no chance in hell with her friend.

Blinking at him a couple of times before picking up the DS that she had abandoned a few moments before, she began pushing the buttons to start a new game. Eventually she heard whining starting to come from Peter’s direction before she finally said, “You already look like a complete idiot.”

Peter frowned and cocked his head like a wounded puppy. “Mich-“ he squeaked out.

“But lucky for you she seems to like the whole idiot thing.”

She heard a gasp emit from the boy, “Wait, does that mean? HolyshitMJ! Please tell me you’re saying yes.”

Michelle sighed as Peter’s eyes were bugging out of his face and he had his fists curled up in victory, halfway into the air. “Yes, loser. Gwen would definitely go out with you.”

“YES!” jumping up into the air, Peter let out a huge laugh and before she knew what was happening, he was tackling Michelle. “ThankyouthankyouthankyouMichelle!”

Swatting at Peter as he continued to hug, well attempt to hug, the crap out of her, she tried her best to push him off and onto the floor. “Get off me you dweeb!”

Finally she was able to push him on the floor where he continued to laugh, on the ground like a lunatic, pushing her hair back out of her face, Michelle just rolled her eyes again and if her eyes were starting to burn with what could possibly be tears then that was just allergies. The pollen index was high that day after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Ha. This is going to be a painful story. Not for you but for me. I just want Peter and Michelle to get together okay, I don't know why I'm making this so complicated. I hate myself. Also I love Gwen Stacy too soooooo.
> 
> Come say hey or yell at me for this awful multi-chaptered story on my seemingly abandoned [tumblr](http://sweetblushes.tumblr.com/) (but it's not) if you feel so inclined. I am open to comments, concerns or questions.


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